Country Manager, Philippines

Confidential client: a US-headquartered professional services firm offering tax, finance and accounting, and business management services, setting up its Philippines entity.

Position snapshot

• Title: Country Manager, Philippines
• Location: Cebu or Manila, Philippines (to be finalised)
• Industry: professional services and global shared services (tax, finance and accounting, business management)
• Reports to: global / US leadership
• Scope: the full country entity, with P&L ownership from day one

The role

You will have end-to-end responsibility for the Philippines entity: building, operating and scaling it while delivering high-quality tax, finance and accounting, business management and other shared services. The role needs a strong operator and business leader who balances growth, cost discipline, risk and people leadership, working closely with US leadership and global teams.

Key responsibilities

1. Country leadership and strategy

• Own leadership, governance and strategy for the country entity.
• Define and run the country operating model in line with global objectives.
• Be the single-point owner of Philippines operations for US leadership.
• Build and reinforce the firm's culture, ethics and values locally.

2. Full P&L ownership

• Own revenue (work) planning, budgeting, forecasting and cost control.
• Drive profitability, productivity, utilisation and margin.
• Set up financial discipline, reporting cadence and performance dashboards.
• Make data-driven decisions on hiring, investment and expansion.

3. Service delivery and operations

• Oversee delivery across tax, finance and accounting, business management and future service lines.
• Ensure quality, timeliness, compliance and SLA adherence.
• Set and track KPIs, SLAs, utilisation, quality scores and client satisfaction.
• Lead continuous improvement, standardisation and automation.

4. Talent and organisation building

• Build, lead and mentor a strong local leadership team.
• Partner with HR on workforce planning, hiring, performance management and compensation.
• Drive learning, upskilling, succession planning and leadership development.
• Own engagement, retention and culture outcomes.

5. Finance, compliance and risk

• Ensure compliance with Philippine labour law, tax regulation and statutory requirements.
• Coordinate audits, internal controls and governance with global Finance and Legal.
• Identify and mitigate operational, regulatory and geopolitical risk.
• Ensure strong business continuity and data security.

6. Cross-functional and stakeholder management

• Work closely with HR, IT, Finance, Facilities, Admin and Security.
• Ensure scalable IT infrastructure and a secure operating environment.
• Build trusted relationships with US partners, service line leaders and senior stakeholders.
• Represent the firm with vendors, advisors and regulators as needed.

What you bring

• 15+ years in professional services, shared services or global delivery.
• Prior experience as Country Head, Country Manager, Center Head or Operations Head (strongly preferred).
• A strong background in tax, accounting, finance or business services, with full P&L ownership and financial accountability.
• Proven ability to build and scale large teams, preferably 100+ people.
• Experience working closely with US or global stakeholders, with clear executive communication and an operational excellence and scale mindset.

All applications are handled in confidence by a Dedicated HR Services partner. The client is named to shortlisted candidates only.